Help ! -Need AA light with long runtime on low/moonlight mode

hehe… can’t be 1 / 10 ma on 1xNiMh… that would imply 2000 / 200 hrs - I list the 1xNiMh ma current draws in the last paragraph above, and 1x14500 will draw about 1/3 those numbers with output current regulated stone flat. The moonlight output has come up a lot since then - I love bright moonlights, which are my primary use modes for camping and power outages. So many manufacturers overstate their ML modes by multiples (as I mentioned above)… very hard to find a true “bright” moonlight… I quit looking - too many disappointments, but I will admit to being a low lumen mode spacing snob.

These are new in box lights btw… no warranty though.

Actually, now that you mention it, I do recall mention of the 1ma, 10ma thing on 47s site way back…. I think those were the currents delivered to the LED at its Vf (forward voltage) so that’s after the boost (or buck) drivers and regulator feedback loop (what ever it’s called). The head runs so many different battery tube configs, that battery current draw would have need a spreadsheet to map out.

Oh ok then… I mis-read the details. I was thinking the 1mA and 10mA were tailcap current draw ratings.

Great info !

Thanks for the help

If anyone has a long runtime moonlight led light in AA/AAA configuration and they want to do a trade for my XTAR, let me know.

Just to point out something no one mentioned, at really low currents, the Vf of an XP-G2 is 2.65V. For a 1.5V alkie, it has to boost its full voltage by 1.8× (76% more) to get there. For a 1.2V NiMH cell, it’s 2.2× (121% more).

That’s almost a 2:1 difference in boost, meaning that the 1.2V cell has to put out that much more current to get the same level of output.

Think about how a 2-cell flashlight only has to put out half the current to get the same amperage to the LED as when using 1 cell. This case is similar, that instead of having 1.5V to play with, your eneloop only has 1.2V, or 0.3V less (25% of its voltage).

To take it to a ridiculous extreme, if you had a boost converter that could run off 0.15V, it’d have to put out 10× the current as the 1.5V cell.

And these cells are rated in mAH, not mWH, so 1A from a 1.5V cell is 1.5W, but from a 1.2V cell is only 1.2W. To get the same 1.5W from a 1.2V cell, that’s 1.25A, not the original 1.00A.

And of course, that’s not taking into account voltage drop from any pass elements, etc. 0.2V from a saturated bipolar xstr is a lot bigger to the 1.2V cell than a 1.5V cell.

Ugh… all these numbers make my head hurt. Just keep in mind that not all mAHs are created equal.

You’d always have (significant) boost losses with a 1×AA light. Better to 3-up the cells to 3.6V (NiMH) and connect it across the LED through the right value resistor.

I wouldn’t waste a high-CRI LED at such low output levels. Red items would tend to look black anyway (Purkinje effect), so ironically an Angry Blue max-output LED would be best.

There’s no differential - the “1.5” nominal V of an Alk is near its peak charge while the “1.2” nominal of a NiMh is a dead cell. If you load up HKJ’s AA comparator, and compare an Eneloop to any Alkaline at 0.1A (the OPs runtime test implies 0.07A , so quite close) you will find that the AVERAGE voltage though the batteries discharge curves to be virtually identical, and the 2450 Eneloop Pro will be a bit better than Alks (so add 25-30% to the OPs runtime).

I find it kinda funny that folks are trying to defend/justify a $10 light’s manufacturer specs. I see plenty of mid-priced lights that are much further off than this in the low lows that reviewers rarely test. Actually, I’m impressed that this light’s other mode specs only claim ~180 lumen-hours per AA (very realistic) vs some claims I see from 1AA Thurnites (near 800! lumen-hours) and Armyteks/Olights (~400 lm-hrs).

The big hole in this test is that the OP has no way of measuring the output. For example, I have a SWM D40A that spec’d low at 30lms for 30hrs (900 lm-hrs) and my sample metered 15 lms, but a runtime test yielded 60 hours (2000mah Eneloops) so still 900 lms-hrs efficiency, and I was really happy to have the lower, longer runtime low (it’s moonlight is also quite accurate for output and runtime, btw).

Assuming we already all own smartphones and multi-meters, for a additional $5 BLF plumbing elbow “lighbox,” you can easily test your own lights for output and runtime and find out which manufacturers are full of it.

Thanks for your reply.

This is what I was claiming about this XTAR that with a properly and fully charged 2000 MAH eneloop only getting 28 hours runtime , I find it difficult to believe the manufacturers claims that it would get 80 hours with a alkaline battery. Then, we had a poster trying to make me like foolish, by claiming the 80 hour runtime, was specifically for lithium battery, which the manufacturer doesnt even mention on their spec sheet ….the only 2 batteries they mention are nimh/alkaline .

For about $8 , this XTAR is a good light …but I was only interested in it for the long runtime on moonlight mode, which it does not perform as rated.

Why not make the hop to a compact 18650 tube light? Sounds like you already do a lot of NiMH recharges.

Something like a convoy S series, with the new firmware would be less than $20, and an 18650 is not much more than an eneloop cell.

Tons more power & much more runtime.

Or if you wanted something very specific you could probably buy a single mode driver programmed for X% output.

IMHO, it wont be long before we start to see LED manufacturers offer very long runtime flashlights on single AA/AAA , in moonlight mode for low prices. The technology gets better every few months and I think some companies will start to see profit potential in this untapped area of lighting. For my needs , a small 2 mode LED light that provided 2 lumens @ 3 days or more and 100 lumens for 30 minutes on a single AA/AAA eneloop battery , for around $10 would be great. No need for strobe or numerous other modes.

On the Jetbeam JET - I MK LED Flashlight , the manufacturer is showing it with a ENELOOP battery and claiming 100 hours runtime on 1.5 lumen mode . Has anyone tested this to see if it gets near 100 hours on a fully charged 2000 MAH eneloop AA battery ?

Just buy a FourSevens Atom A0 and enjoy the TRUE moonlight run time.

AAA cell Voltage Range 1.0V to 1.5V

Low: 0.24 lumens for 120 hours
High: 25 lumens for 1.5 hour

Discount Coupon: CPF12
Free shipping

I own it but never done runtime test on lowest mode. Most people only test runtime on turbo and high (and sometimes medium) mode only. And I have never seen people do runtime testing of a light on its lowest mode as it would take too much time.

But I can tell that JET-I MK is currently one of the best budget AA light.

Im not sure .24 lumens, is bright enough to light up our storm shelter enough. I think I would need 1- 3 lumens…or bare minimum of .5 lumens with light diffuser attached.

Atom AO is a mule that can light the entire ceiling - no need for a diffuser - AND it has a magnetic base.

Maybe it’s like the Astolux A01…
It starts at moon mode, which is so low, it’s almost useless.

Well if you ever do try 18650, a convoy C8 with XPL-hi and a new biscotti driver yields 3.4lm at 5.4mA tailcap current so you would have about 3lm for close to a month non-stop.

An xml2 equipped s2+ with the same driver I would guess to have somewhat similar numbers.

And, as of the time of this posting, 107 Convoy S2+ are available for the BARGAIN basement price of $10.59 at Gearbest.
If I didn’t just buy several EagleEye X6R’s I would be buying these.

You will need to invest in some 18650 batteries and a charger that can handle them, but they should provide a much wider use case in your shelter plans.

Try it. Remember it takes about 20 minutes for your eyes to become dark adapted.
If one isn’t enough, buy two. But I think you’ll be surprised.

You can aways add a few 5mm LEDs on motion sensors to fill in corners:

The Atoms are wicked, my AAF is nearly the same output as my SWM D40A (0.7 vs 0.8 lms), and will do 200+ hrs (9ma Eneloop tailcap current draw) - I cannot believe they only spec 45 hrs. The 150ish lumen-hours/AA is the best efficiency I’ve ever seen for sub-lumen output, but this driver does lack voltage regulation (i.e., output changes depending upon V, and the light is rated to 4.2V). I bought a bunch for$18 when the reflectored version (“F”) went on clearance earlier in the year, but I think the current AA mules are way out of the OPs price range.

The A0 mules tend to be a bit dim for me too. Although I agree you can wait for deep dark adaptation, I find I’m always blowing my deep night vision with something (eg, smartphone surfing at lowest output), so I tend to prefer the “brighter” moonlights, and with a little more hotspot focus/lux.

Do you have a link to an independent output/tailcap current test of this light? I’m curious since that’s more than twice as efficient as I’ve ever seen for ~3 lms (eg, typically >11ma for a li-ion in my AA/14500 ZLs, Olights, Quarks)

Sure… I share a similar interest in low lumens, long runtimes, the 1xAA(14500) format, and have a bit of pet peeve with grossly exaggerated manufacturer specs, and sadly, your sample at nearly half claim isn’t too bad! (Although most exaggerations short change on lumens since that’s much harder to verify.)